Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

I tried to find a picture of one of the rapists, who was actually tried and convicted. Surprise. I couldn’t. But, his name is George Kpingbah and he comes from Indonesia. Funny that there wasn’t a mug shot available, or even the color of his hair or eyes. Guess you know what that means. 99% sure. He is an immigrant or refugee, or some such thing.

Not caterday yet but this is so much fun to watch. Popcorn time with this video, approx 30 minutes of beautifully trained tigers and lions all together. I think there a 7 tigers and 4 lions, very beautiful animals After viewing I started to consider perhaps President Trump is more like the trainers than a lions. Although when Trump is raw he’s quite lionesque. Enjoy this from 2017 Monte Carlo..It’s a Russian act…..Oh, yeah Russia again..those darn Russians.

Attn: mods. I just got redirected to a spurious page offering me something if I participate in a survey. This happened just after I entered this forum. Of course, I never, ever, respond to such things but, while I might have picked up some malware somewhere, I don’t think it’s me since I perform regular and comprehensive scans.

Jorge Ramos is a Univision “journalist”, the guy that Trump tossed out of a news conference for trying to bully his way into questioning Trump. He’s also a strident Mexican nationalist who see’s our country as a rightful part of Mexico that was “stolen” by Anglos in the 1836 Texas revolution and the 1848 Mexico/US war. Mexican school children are taught that the southwestern US—Texas, Mew-Mexico, Arizona, and California—were “stolen” from Mexico and so it is only right and just for Mexicans to cross the border to live, work, and partake of the riches of the Unites States which—in their view—is an illegitimate country.

This historical lie has been perpetuated for decades and is used to justify Mexico’s demand for an open border (despite not having one itself) with the US and a defense for the millions of illegal immigrants now residing in the US. In their view—something we see in the California demonstrations where protesters wave Mexican flags—we are the interlopers on their soil. This is seldom openly admitted by spokesmen like Ramos who are in fact, very careful to not discuss Mexico’s historic claims. At least they do this when they are speaking to an English dominant audience. A few days ago, however, Ramos’s comments to a Spanish speaking audience were translated. This is what he really thinks. This is also what nationalist elements of the Mexican government thinks, too.

“There are many people who do not want us to be here, and who want to create a wall in order to separate us. But you know what? This is also our country. Let me repeat this: OUR country, not theirs. It is our country. And we are not going to leave. We are nearly 60 million Latinos in the United States. And thanks to US, the United States eats, grows and, as we’ve seen today, sings and dances. So when they attack us, we already know what we are going to do. We are not going to sit down. We will not shut up. And we will not leave.”

Breitbart had an article with it. As a multigenerational californian this clap trap lie angers me to no end. The mexicans who helped create californian independence would have gone to war with this guy. He knows nothing about being a citizen nor seems to have a shred of understanding of the sacrifices those mexicans made.

Good points. In Santa Ana’s day, the Texas region was sparsely populated, and it was not clear who had a strong claim. [There are analogies to the Palestine, before the Zionist movement began at the end of the 1800s – Of course, a cottage industry has grown up around debunking reliable historical data and accounts, form Mark Twain and others, regarding the degree that the Palestine was unsettled, sparsely populated, and effectively was populated or ruled by no particular government or people.]

In order to strengthen “Mexico’s” claim (‘Mexico” was in a decades-spanning phase of regime changes, so there is not one continuous “Mexico” to speak of from those days), they were encouraging anyone to settle in the Texas area – regardless of where you were from, and regardless of whether you were European, or from central Mexico, or wherever.

The Mexican government did a bunch of things the population did not like. So, Texans, including those of Mexican background, wanted to break away, and were involved in Texas independence. All of this is on Wikipedia, and in many other places. So, for Texas, it was not quite a white versus brown battle for that portion of the U.S. –Simply not true.

“There are analogies to the Palestine, before the Zionist movement began at the end of the 1800s . . .”

Yes. This was a major tenet of the “Chicano” movement of the ’60’s and ’70’s. The parallels are quite clear. Both the Palestinian ideology and the Mexican nationalist ideology are based on an idea of an “imagined community” that exists wherever its population exists. Neither recognize formal national boundaries because of this.

Here’s an interesting site I just found that discusses this in some detail. I mention this becuse most people who don’t have knowledge of life along our southern border don’t quite understand that Mexican nationalism (along with extreme ethnocentrism) are a dominant feature of illegal immigration. They want “their” land back.

“Most Mexicans believe that the United States unfairly took from Mexico what is now the Southwest of our country, and that it is legitimate for them to ignore U.S. immigration law when illegally crossing the border. ”

It’s one of **those** nights. You’ve made you way to the restaurant overlooking the best part of the city. You’ve spent maybe a bit more than you should have but the meal was good enough to be almost worth it. But what’s really special is that you’re with The Girl. You’ve only just met, really, and this is your first real date. But something has clicked and you find yourself as interested in what she’s all about as you are with her good looks. Perhaps because of this the conversation has flowed in a time warp wherein you find yourself laughing as hard at her stories as she does at yours and the little voice you don’t often hear is telling you that . . . maybe this is it.. And then suddenly three hours have passed without you really noticing. Perhaps it’s the wine but you both know it’s not. So . . . you decide to stay for Stephane Grappelli’s last set.

Thanks, Dora. I’m almost standing on the bank of that little stream, can almost smell the fresh coffee brewing in the cabin ahead. A comfortable old chair by the fireplace awaits the embers of a splendid afternoon.

Me too. To all faith-filled treepers my family needs prayers. Son going through wrenching custody battle for son who is not doing well with mom. She’s not stable and 8 year-old wants to live with Dad. We have already spent thousands, we don’t have much more. Am praying for a miracle.

Can Son still talk to ex at all?! If so, would recommend that he do so, he should know how to butter-her-up, after all, they had kid.

Just tell her that he understands that she’s having problems raising the “boy” The kid is rebelling, How about I take him for now. Go have some fun, ex, call him everyother day if you want, see him on every other weekend, etc.

Had friends who went through this same thing. When lawyers got out of way, and I think we all understand that, (it btw was a lawyer who recommended this tactic first, huh!)
Get the emotion out of it. They should both be reasonable for the good of their kid, etc.

Takes a pair to do this; but my friend’s approach worked. It was parent to parent, and they (both parents) said they wanted only what’s best for their kid (only thing they could agree on) Dad said, look kids rebelling, ex go have yourself some fun being single, you can see kid whenever you want. Ex even signed custody papers, for “dad insurance purposes” {wink, wink} Dad raised kids, ex called some, did see kids every other weekend. (And believe it or not….that sneaky little new lawyer gave the best advice, and drew up the custody papers, which ex signed)

What I learned from that, is do not threaten either parents’ mother-fatherhood ability( puts either one on defense immediately) and the lawyers tend to blow things out of proportion. (which actually just means more lawyer fees.)

They do, don’t they? My friends out there keep telling me horror stories. They lament the fact that they are tied to Redmond. It is a beautiful state, just full of wackos in the government like most of the left coast.

We’ve been infiltrated by fruits and nuts. Several years ago my husband was chatting with a person while in line at Costco and the man was bragging about being from California. My husband said “well I hope you left your attitudes there” and quite a few few people joined in and said “Yeah!”.

actually it doesn’t look like a photo which is why I tried to post a large enough image to show his beautiful mastery of brush work and use of palette knife….but the image showed up kinda small-ish so those artistic details aren’t all that visible.

“In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love. I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

There is something I have been thinking about lately, and I feel that I have to say it.

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
Matt 5:44

This verse, a direct command from Jesus, has been one of the hardest for me. But lately I have come to, been led to share, some things about it.

When we ask God to bless an enemy, what then happens to that enemy? Especially what happens to an enemy who has been led to evil?

When humans are blessed by God, we are led to God, to goodness, to righteous actions and thoughts. So this, then happens to enemies that have been led by evil: they are led to God instead.

How can we love those who do evil things? God loves us all, but those who are doing evil need His love to change and to escape from the clutches of evil.

Every human child is beloved. Is not that child still part of the adult he/she becomes? Only God’s love can save the evildoer, and remove the evil from his life, such that he/she becomes once again, spiritually clean, like the child he/she once was. “For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

When we love our enemy, we are praying for God’s love to save that enemy. In so doing we pray for our own forgiveness as well. “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Do good to them that hate you? I don’t think this means to join them or help them to do evil! Certainly it does not mean to reward their hatred. Rather when we pray for them, we are doing good to them.

Having a conscience is good for all of us, and hearing from God within that conscience is absolute good: though the person undergoing the experience might nor feel good at the time. Perhaps through sincere prayers of the faithful, the unfaithful regain conscience, which is at its best, the spirit of a human speaking the righteousness of God within that human.

Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you? If you pray for the human, the demon and the devil’s hold on that human are weakened. And that is all for the good of the human, and changes him and cleanses him.

In all this, if it is you that is in the wrong (and we all fall short), by praying for enemies, you too will be cleansed. You will see where you are not perfect and you can be led toward the perfection that Christ offers and commands.

Matthew 5:48King James Version (KJV)

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

In other words, we pray for the salvation of human enemies. We do not pray for the success of evil endeavors, and we do not “do good” to fellow humans by helping them do evil, but by helping to undo evil within humans. By praying for a fellow human, we do the human spirit good (his and our own) and the spirit of evil harm.

I hope this helps someone. I really didn’t want to write it. But I had to,

When I pray for President Trump, his famly, and all his staff I also pray for a spiritual awakening in this country and that eyes are opened and they see the truth in God and that we all come closer to Him. Many in this country have lost God and that is the core problem we have today.

Thank you for this post. It fits hand in hand with forgiving people. Harboring hate eats away at your soul. It can be very hard to forgive as I know, but is a necessary step in order to pray sincerely for those we don’t like. And that step also can be difficult.

Forgiving doesn’t mean you have forgotten, doesn’t mean you trust. Sometimes it means you erect a fence so that a person cannot take advantage again. There are people that are to be pitied because of lack of character for whatever reason, but one can still pray for them to be healed, cleansed and or saved. That being said, it still can be difficult to do so, especially if it’s family or someone that has hurt your family.

So the new MSM talking point seems to be that Trump “became the President” or “became Presidential”.

“Van Jones said during the moment honoring fallen Navy SEAL’s William ‘Ryan’ Owens’ widow, Carryn Owens, Trump “became president.” and “…but he did something you can’t take away from him, he became president of the United States.”

Chris Wallace: “I want to say this right, but I feel like tonight, Donald Trump became the president of the United States.”

I think they saw a powerful display of faith from Mrs. Owens without understanding it. We who have watched our President’s various speeches have seen moments similar before, but not as visually powerful.

No one has mentioned they were smart to put this on pretty much solid rock, so it did not do as much damage as it could have.Me thinks the guys that planned this dam knew that and planned for this very scenario ……

There’s no doubt the location was excellent. Those who were in on the planning knew what they were doing. Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance is always the key to an earthen dam and somewhere along the line the powers-that-be chose to reject that in favor of much less necessary budget items. Gross negligence.

California needs some attention BIG TIME to your State government! I read just the other day that Moonbeam, and the legislature wanted to slow down scholarships for the middle class, and give more to the illegals.

And a good way to start your day. I would sometimes forget to do that, I admit. The first time Sd started an open thread, I told him…..YES! This reminds us all to start our day this way, and with the patrol of the unknown soldier too. Perfect!

I visit this page first thing in the morning for The Lord’s Prayer, then again after 9pm to read The Lord’s Prayer again & to read lilbirdee12’s prayer posted by auscitizenmom. I too am comforted by this open thread!

Our Heavenly Father, Your children come to you tonight to ask for healing and peace throughout our country so that we may return to being One Nation Under God. Guide us to be leaders in Your Kingdom, spreading Your Love and Salvation to all. Forgive us our sins and deliver us from evil.

Lord, we ask for a blanket of protection over all our troops and law enforcement who serve to defend and protect us. Bless our representatives with the strength and wisdom they need to achieve the path You have chosen for us.

Please place Your Guardian Angels of Protection around Donald Trump and Mike Pence and their families as they seek to lead America back to You.

Grant us patience, Lord, as the evil ones try to anger us and cause us to fall.
Spread blessings over Israel and Netanyahu.

We humbly ask that You please comfort those who are grieving and in pain.
Thank you Father, for Your Love and the gift of Life.